Concern over the environmental quality of the world's oceans and waterways continues to grow. In light of that, industry has taken steps to implement the use of environmentally-friendly chemicals and lubricants. Nevertheless, steps should still be taken to ensure that these products are not inadvertently dispersed in the environment and, if they are, appropriate reclamation methods should be implemented. Still to this day, many industrial manufacturers dispose of waste chemicals and lubricating products into sewers and storm drains. Like the bilge water that accumulates within a ship's hull, these land-based operations often produce large quantities of water contaminated with oil, fuel, and other hydrocarbon-based waste.
Similarly, it is still common practice within the maritime industry to dump polluted bilge water overboard. While many countries attempt to protect against such practices by the threat of criminal penalties and fines amounting to millions of dollars, such deterrence measures are difficult to enforce and are often easily avoided by operators who travel in and out of regulated waters. Unfortunately, pumping polluted water overboard is simpler and less expensive than either cleaning the water prior to pumping it overboard or holding the polluted water until arriving in port where it can be pumped to a land-based water treatment facility.
Maritime, automotive, and other commercial industries have begun to formulate environmentally-friendly chemicals and lubricants containing estolide base oils. Estolides are bio-based, non-toxic, biodegradable, and non-bioaccumulative. Nevertheless, estolides can find their way into the environment in the same manner that their petroleum-based counterparts do. Accordingly, there remains a need to develop methods of reclaiming estolides for reuse and/or recycling.